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Vol 20 No 4

01 March 2010


 

  • RELIGION

    Hype undermines atheists' mission

    • Tim Roberts
    • 12 March 2010
    31 Comments

    An ego-driven, take-no-prisoners approach dooms atheism to remain an exclusive club. Only by forming alliances with the moderate religious community will atheists be able to preserve the elements of society they value most, such as freedom of enquiry and the separation of Church and State.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Leading Muslim thinker's non-violent activism

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 12 March 2010
    2 Comments

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Bringing a spirit of silliness to the War on Terror

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 11 March 2010
    2 Comments

    The soldiers are trained to walk through walls, become invisible and killgoats with only their minds. It's difficult todiscern any particular satirical point to the story aside from the occasionalnod to non-violence and the turtuous capabilities of Barney theDinosaur.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Women unheard in the din about burqas

    • Ruby J. Murray
    • 11 March 2010
    11 Comments

    The strident debate over Islamic dress is again barreling through western democracies. If attempting to combat discrimination and violence against women really is at the bottom of the debate, then why not focus on domestic violence with the same hysteria? 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    When sitting is subversive

    • Suzanne Hemming
    • 10 March 2010
    9 Comments

    The Singaporeans have heavy fines for antisocial behaviour such as spitting and swearing. It works for them, and creates a pleasant, safe environment for tourists. But the lack of seats suggests something more: a form of social control. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rosemary Goldie and the Santamaria Split

    • Bruce Duncan
    • 10 March 2010
    12 Comments

    In July 1953, the Vatican's agent Rosemary Goldie — who died on 27 February — met Santamaria but was unable to convince him of the need to keep Catholic Action out of direct political involvements. She was dismayed by the Movement's defiance of clear directives from the Holy See.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    My story of God

    • Various
    • 09 March 2010
    1 Comment

    it’s a god of sugar, a god of shallow forgives, it’s a god of stained truth and glass asunder.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Australian farmers sold short by cheap food

    • Sarah Kanowski
    • 09 March 2010
    10 Comments

    Throughout his 2007 election campaign Rudd pledged to address 'inflated grocery prices'. But Australians are spending less at the supermarket than ever before. Cheap food has come at a cost to the livelihoods of Australian farmers and the environment.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Action-man Abbott undervalues bureaucracy

    • Michael Mullins
    • 08 March 2010
    7 Comments

    Tony Abbott says health reform should cure patients and not feed bureaucracy. Yet properly structured bureaucracy is needed to protect patients' interests from those health industry lobbyists with profit motivations.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    To catch a bully

    • Luke Williams
    • 08 March 2010
    13 Comments

    The growing awareness and legislation around bullying has had an unintended consequence: many workplace bullies have simply become sneaky. As the debate about this issue starts to swing, perhaps it's time bullies started to lie awake and worry.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A poetic word on gay spirituality

    • Will Day
    • 05 March 2010
    5 Comments

    What a pity gay Christians, who might so greatly enrich and evolve our religious institutions if permitted to flourish, are still obliged to eke their way along the shadowy paths of discretion if they want to be part of God's gang.

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  • RELIGION

    Conversations with atheists

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 05 March 2010
    35 Comments

    Australia's first Global Atheist Convention will feature such speakers as Richard Dawkins, Philip Adams and Peter Singer. I look forward to it with the same tempered gloom that would descend upon me if a convention of Christian evangelists came to town.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Hilary Clinton and Hollywood's gender war

    • Ruby Hamad
    • 04 March 2010
    3 Comments

    Remember the man who yelled 'iron my shirt!' at Hillary Clinton? No doubt Clinton knows the problems women face in their fight to be taken seriously in the workplace. Acclaimed The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow has similarly found that male peers seem more interested in her body than her body of work.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Chile's tremble

    • Antonio Castillo
    • 04 March 2010
    7 Comments

    Concepción, the second largest city in Chile, was worst affected by the weekend's earthquake. I was there little more than a month ago, visiting old comrades and my sister and her family. At the moment of writing I have been unable to contact them.

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  • RELIGION

    Uighurs failed by Cambodia's sham refugee law

    • Frank Brennan
    • 03 March 2010
    6 Comments

    In June last year a solitary Uighur from Xinjiang province arrived in Phnom Penh seeking asylum. On 18 December he and 21 other Uighur asylum seekers were praying when Cambodian police entered their safe house and abducted them at gunpoint.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Confessions of a stamp murderer

    • Devyani Borade
    • 03 March 2010
    1 Comment

    I am a pigtailed nine-year-old in frocks when I first lay eyes on the album. At a glance I can tell my grandfather's obviously old stamps from my dad's newer ones. Excitement fills me. What a treasure! I am rich! Now I can buy all the dolls I want!

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Scapegoating ministers

    • John Warhurst
    • 02 March 2010
    12 Comments

    We are often quick to blame government ministers. In the case of Bill Shorten, Stephen Conroy and Peter Garrett, they may emerge with tarnished reputations. But in rushing to criticise our ministers we often let ourselves off the hook too easily.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Why I still go to church

    • Charlotte Clutterbuck
    • 02 March 2010
    5 Comments

    now because of you kneeling .. beside me, thumbing the scarred leather .. of the little mass-book your grandmother .. hid at the back of her Protestant linen-press 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Israel's rogue behaviour

    • Michael Mullins
    • 01 March 2010
    14 Comments

    Last week Israel's air force unveiled its Heron TP fleet of unmanned aircraft, which it says can travel as far as Iran. War by remote control is faceless. We remain at a distance from those with whom we disagree. There is no basis for trust.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Libraries lead the e-book revolution

    • Philip Harvey
    • 01 March 2010
    9 Comments

    We are seeing only the early technology of the e-book. In five years the e-book will look, feel, sound, smell and gesticulate in very different ways from its iPad and Kindle prototypes. As usual, libraries are quietly ahead of everyone else.

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